George Walford: The Meaning of Freedom

Here is the ‘Wildcat’ cartoon from the anarchist journal, Freedom, for March 1987:

“All I want is for everybody to be able to do what they like, so long as they don’t prevent others from doing the same.”

It is a recognition that the claim sometimes made for anarchism, that it stands for freedom without limit or qualification, cannot stand up. To accept freedom with the condition that one shall not interfere with the freedom of others, is to accept a massive restraint. But there is no alternative; if all are free to be free then all must respect the freedom of others, that is to say, must exercise self-restraint. There can be no freedom without restraint.